Spirit and Water
The First Lesson Acts 8:26-40
An angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went.
Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.”
So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.
Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
so he does not open his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”
The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.
As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
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In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved over the waters. And God SAID, “Let there BE,” and it was so. My favorite Bible STORY!
We are a religion of stories to read, hear, mark, learn, inwardly digest and enjoy: the fascinating book we call Scripture. Father Steve calls it a book of love stories, which it is, our loving relationship with God, and God's love for us just as we are, the way we are.
Just so today, the Fifth Sunday of Easter, we have another story of Water and the Spirit, the good old Sunday school Bible story of Philip and The Ethiopian Eunuch, an Easter story about the Holy Spirit and the water of Baptism, and we have baptism here this morning!
The story begins with an angel of the Lord calling Philip. And maybe you noticed the subtle transition: the angel IS the Spirit, the Spirit of God, the presence of God. Anything can happen in a Bible story!
And Philip: this is not Philip the Apostle, this is Philip the Deacon who was ordained with Stephen the Martyr, who is now Philip the Evangelist going about preaching Christ.
And the third actor in the story: The Ethiopian Eunuch. He’s his queen’s treasurer, an important person. Couple of clues: the NT Greek calls him a potentate; and in the Bible, a chariot is a symbol of power. So, a person of prestige, he’s used to being treated with respect.
The story does not name him, but I will not keep calling him The Ethiopian Eunuch as though he's an object whose identity is his imperfection. He’s a person, a human being with dignity and a name. He's a son of Ethiopia, so I christen him “ben-Ethiopia,” Beniti for short. Beniti.
Beniti had been up to Jerusalem to worship God. And now as he heads home toward Ethiopia, he is reading Scripture.
The story happens on the road that runs from Jerusalem down to Gaza, two places in our hearts and minds today. The text says it’s a desert road, the wilderness - - which is significant, sets the scene and the mood, because Beniti himself is in a personal desert of desolating spiritual wilderness.
A Bible story does not waste words: every word is informative, enriching; if you’re doing Bible study you need to sort that out. And every Bible story has a point, a message, a moral; and subtleties: what's going on? why is this story being told? what’s the gospel here?
The questions may be longer than the story, but my response is short: it’s a story about the saving joy of baptism out of sin and death, into the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Also, it’s personal for me! As I end more than forty years at pulpit and altar, I hope you remember Fr. Tom as one who tried to keep it short and sweet - - especially short - -
which surfaces my own humility story, that I’ve told here before. One Sunday evening nearly forty years ago I preached at a Full Gospel Holiness Church in our town, because their pastor, a friend, kept hounding me to come preach at his church, and I finally gave up and went. The church was packed that night, and I preached the exact same sermon I’d preached in my own Episcopal church that morning.
After worship, as I stood at the door greeting folks, a young girl, maybe thirteen years old (she was in my daughter TASSY’s class at school) - - she gave me a huge compliment: “Brother Weller, I LOVE your preaching!” As my head swelled up like a balloon and I wanted to hear more of this compliment, I said, “Why thank you! What did you like about it?” She said, “It was short.”
Our Bible short story is indelicate, but alrighty then, I’ll just say it: Beniti is a eunuch, a male slave who was castrated as an infant - - not big and muscular, he’s soft, chubby, smooth, no beard, no longer male - - a slave in the royal palace, literally he was cut so he’d be no threat around the king’s harem of women. But - - THEREFORE, ALSO, and FURTHERMORE, he’s not likely to embezzle funds and be a big spender to impress the ladies, so he is trusted with money. And, though still and always a slave, Beniti is trusted with a lot of freedom.
Also: Beniti is a Gentile god-fearer who reveres the God of Israel, and he’s made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship just as a devout Jew would do.
In our story, Beniti is heading home in his chariot (probably a chariot from the royal household that the queen let him use for his pilgrimage). It’s not a fast war chariot as you may imagine; it’s a comfortable carriage, moving along sedately. Beniti is sitting inside, shielded from the desert sun, reading Scripture, reading aloud to himself as they did in those days. He’s reading Isaiah, he’s pondering - - and - - he's hurting, he's down, very sad - -
Beniti is depressed. He’s desolate like the desert around him. He feels dead inside. He went up to Jerusalem full of life, to worship God, but he was turned away, rejected because eunuchs are not allowed in the Temple: Beniti has been cut, first physically and now cut off from God. He’s blemished like a lamb who is unfit to be sacrificed; unworthy to offer himself to God, Beniti is crushed.
Highly respected in Ethiopia, Beniti expected to be welcomed in Jerusalem, but he was treated as an outcast, humiliated, scorned, laughed at. He’s no man, he’s an IT. Instead of traveling home to Ethiopia filled with joy, his heart is broken.
Now reading the prophet Isaiah, Beniti is intrigued by a passage that seems to speak to him personally:
“Like a sheep, he was led to slaughter,
like a lamb silent before its shearer
he does not open his mouth.
In his humiliation, justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”
Like a sheep led to slaughter, Beniti also has been cut. He’s been humiliated like the man in Isaiah. He too has been treated unjustly. And - - a slave neutered like a pet dog - - he's denied life’s greatest joy: no generations for Beniti. No wife, no family, no children - - no grandchildren for Beniti.
Meanwhile, back to Philip!! Sent and empowered by the Spirit of God, and running along faster than the slow-moving carriage, Philip draws near, - - hears Beniti reading aloud, starts conversation as one who knows the Bible, and Beniti invites him to get in, sit down, and talk.
Philip explains that the Isaiah passage is about The Suffering Servant, and that it describes Jesus, a lamb led to slaughter, who suffered unjustly and was humiliated, just like Beniti.
Philip leads Beniti to Christ. Beniti finds himself in Jesus, he’s saved, his depression melts away. Coming alive inside, he wants to unite with Jesus immediately. Philip explains that this is done through the water of baptism.
Beniti cannot wait to be baptized! Looking around, he sees they’re passing a place where there’s water, a stream or brook. They stop the carriage, get out, walk down to the water, and Philip baptizes Beniti into the Body of Christ right then and there.
Philip runs off to proclaim Christ elsewhere. Beniti goes on his way rejoicing, born again, saved by water and the Spirit. Loved by God just as he is, the way he is.
Which is where we are and why we’re here this morning, as the Spirit of God moves over water, and this good old Sunday school Bible story comes true again in Baptism.
Take it away, Father Steve!
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Sermon/homiletic endeavor by the Rev Tom Weller on 28 April 2024, the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year B, in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida. My final Time in the pulpit according to our preaching schedule. Got three more Sundays on the scene, then POP, gone! Gone where? into the desert, personal retreat, a season-long wilderness venture of my own day to day devising; but mainly wandering my beloved downtown St Andrews! Maybe at some point a venture to Apalachicola. Not likely westward though. Meantime, a pax on you! T88&c